2010: Not the Time for "Faux Conservatism"

October 19, 2009

Our nation is coming apart at the seams, and Barack Obama is proving to be absolutely inept, or worse, at dealing with the situation. Instead of honestly assessing things and advancing solutions conceived in the best interests of the American people, he presses mindlessly forward with his ultra-liberal agenda, ignoring or deriding those who make any effort to forestall his destruction of the great institutions of this country. In league with him are the leading players of the Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-NV) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-CA), both of whom have exhibited a vile degree of contempt for real America, and both of whom are pivotal figures in next year's elections.

Reid, as a four-term incumbent and currently the most powerful member of the United States Senate, faces an uphill battle next year, currently trailing in double digits behind potential Republican challengers. And while Pelosi, despite her deranged political philosophy, is secure in her equally disturbed California congressional district, the fringe-left Speaker of the House has become a paragon of everything grassroots America reviles and hopes to expunge from this thoroughly corrupted and perverse government.

In many respects, 2010 is shaping up to be a pivotal juncture in the course of the nation. The intense anger and outrage expressed at the massive "tea party" gatherings throughout 2009 are likely to metamorphose into decidedly anti-liberal voting patterns next year on Election Day, which could likewise translate into major gains for the Republican Party. However, such a scenario is by no means secure. And as usual, within the GOP are forces that, if allowed to act unchecked, may yet sabotage the entire situation.

Democrats are on the ropes. So once again, those vaunted Republican "moderates" are attempting to come to their rescue. Whether motivated by stupidity, cowardice, or an underhanded intention to ensure that liberalism ultimately prevails in America, the usual suspects, while identifying themselves as Republicans, are giving aid and comfort to the left, at the ultimate expense of their supposed colleagues on the right. It is high time that their duplicity be exposed and underscored, so that their malevolent impact on conservatism can be finally neutralized.

At a critical milestone in the Democrat attempt to implement a government takeover of America's healthcare industry, Senator Olympia Snowe (R.-ME) came out in support of the measure in the Senate Finance Committee. Thus she provides the bogus fig leaf of "bipartisanship" that Democrats so fervently desire.

Elsewhere, "Republican" forces are working hard to counteract the enormous influence of Christian and pro-life conservatives in the Party. Somehow, despite the mountains of historical evidence to the contrary, those morally rudderless pragmatists believe this would be a great boon to Republican electoral fortunes, doggedly refusing to accept that by remaking the party according to their "centrist" philosophies, they would ensure the abandonment of the party by enormous numbers of true conservatives.

Thus, their efforts continue. And in them the real animus towards Sarah Palin among GOP "moderates" becomes evident. Despite her lack of an Ivy League pedigree, or perhaps owing to it, Sarah Palin sees moral issues in black and white and, unlike her Beltway insider antagonists, is not afraid to say so. As such she poses a great threat to the Republican "business as usual" Washington crowd that occasionally plays to the right (especially at election time), but ultimately seeks its own advancement.

Over time, an entire class of posturing "conservatives" has been revealed. In the wake of the 2006 electoral disaster, in which both the House and Senate changed from marginally Republican to solidly Democrat, prominent Republicans including Senator John McCain and former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas seized on what they believed was the opportunity to purge the GOP of its Christian/conservative influence. Both offered disparaging words about the supposed political liability of the "religious right" on the gloomy Republican electoral results. And as the abundance of evidence proves, both were inarguably wrong.

In truth, conservatism must be solidly based in traditional Judeo-Christian morality if it is to be conservatism in any sense. So-called "fiscal conservatives" (Senator Snowe considers herself one) merely profess the ludicrous notion that they can confront liberalism's resultant social rot at a far lower cost than that expended by the Democrats.

Predictably, when disastrous expansions of the nanny state result from such double-minded "governance" on the Republicans' watch, they lamely attempt to defend themselves by claiming that their spending levels are still far lower than what the opposition would have perpetrated.

It is sad that this posturing among Republican "moderates" is as vapid as the current day "defenses" of policy offered by Barack Obama. In the face of massive job losses during his term in the White House, he insists that had it not been for his trillion-dollar "stimulus package," the numbers would have been far worse.

Come November of 2010, people will indeed be looking for a real and positive "change" in the composition of this out-of-control federal government. And at this opportune moment, it is no longer sufficient for Republicans to campaign solely on the faults of the Democrat left. If true conservatives in the Senate and House are going to present themselves as a worthy alternative to the abysmal status quo, they must immediately begin defining themselves and the GOP as starkly contrasted from the Democrats. And, they must not allow imposters from the Republican Party's liberal wing to seize the debate and thereby blur the differences between right and left.

Christopher G. Adamo is a resident of southeastern Wyoming and has been involved in state and local politics for many years. He writes for several prominent conservative websites, and has written for regional and national magazines. He is currently the Chief Editorial Writer for The Proud Americans, an advocacy group for America’s seniors, and for all Americans. His contact information and article archives can be found at www.chrisadamo.com, and he can be followed on Twitter @CGAdamo.